Court documents indicate the U.S. government has failed to reach an agreement with the Baton Rouge company that owns a long-delayed energy lease near Glacier National Park, meaning a lawsuit will proceed.
The Associated Press reports the Interior Department is planning to cancel the 6,200-acre lease in northwestern Montana that’s owned by Solenex of Baton Rouge. The company has owned the 6,200-acre lease since 1982. It’s located in the Badger-Two Medicine area just south of Glacier, on land considered sacred to the Blackfoot tribes of the U.S. and Canada.
Attorneys for the two sides on Friday asked U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington, D.C., to allow a lawsuit in the matter to proceed. The case had been on hold since December because of negotiations.
Attorneys for Solenex want compensation for their client if the lease is canceled. Solenex sued in 2013 after facing repeated delays from federal officials as it seeks to develop the site.
Government attorneys contend the lease was improperly sold more than three decades ago, in part because an environmental study did not consider the impact of drilling on the tribes.
